What will the results of the neuropsychological evaluation of my child tell me?

The practical implication of the neuropsychological evaluation is that the information obtained can help to further understand the cognitive strengths and weaknesses that the child presents with. This is determined not only by comparing the child’s performance to that of other children of similar age, but in looking at the specific areas in which the strengths or weaknesses occur, to determining if there is a particular pattern of neurocognitive and neuropsychological performance that is suggested.

Based upon the obtained qualitative and quantitative information, interventions can be initiated to assist the child in compensating for weaknesses while enhancing areas of adequacy or strength that have been identified. Most important is the fact that testing provides a better understanding of the child’s behavior, cognitive abilities and also learning style.

Testing can aid in understanding why your child is having difficulty in school. As an example, the child with a reading problem may have problems that are related to attention, a language disorder, an auditory processing problem, a memory or an organizational problem, all of which may contribute to reading difficulties. Based upon the child’s abilities, interventions to draw upon strengths can be designed while trying to support areas of weakened ability.

Testing can also assist in the determination of the impact of developmental, neurological and medical problems such as epilepsy, autism, asperger’s disorder, attention deficit disorder, dyslexia or a genetic disorder impacting the child’s functioning.

Testing will help to develop a baseline upon which to measure the outcome of remediation and/or treatment of the child’s development over time.

The testing may help in distinguishing between different childhood disorders which are often reflected in different patterns of strengths and weaknesses. As an example, the evaluation can assist in differentiating between an attention deficit disorder and depression for the child; or whether a language delay is due to a problem in producing speech, understanding or expressing language, social shyness, autism or other cognitive delays.